Grilled Bacon-Wrapped Stuffed Hot Dogs

Hot dogs stuffed with cheese, onions, and sauerkraut, wrapped in bacon and cooked on a hot grill.

Yield:Makes 4 stuffed hot dogs.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon ketchup

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

4 large hot dogs, knockwurst, or kielbasa

1/2 ounce cheddar cheese, cut into long sticks

2 Tbsp chopped onion

1 cup refrigerated sauerkraut, drained, roughly chopped

4 slices bacon

Vegetable oil

4 long hot dog buns

Method

1 Prepare your grill for direct medium high heat.

2 Mix together the ketchup and mustard in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the sauerkraut with the chopped onion, set aside. Slice open the hot dogs, down the center, lengthwise, forming a deep pocket in each, but not cutting all the way through. Coat the inside of each hot dog with the mustard ketchup mixture.

3 Place a strip of cheese deep within the pocket of each hot dog. Top with sauerkraut and onions. Encapsulate the cheese at the ends with the sauerkraut mixture as well, so that no cheese is exposed (otherwise it will drip out when cooking).

4 Wrap a strip of bacon around each stuffed hot dog, securing with toothpicks at each end. Make sure you wrap tight enough so that the stuffing stays in, but not so tight so that when the hot dog expands will cooking the bacon would tear.

5 Coat your grill surface with vegetable oil so that the hot dogs don't stick. If you have a grill screen (a screen with smaller holes so that small pieces of whatever you're cooking don't fall through the grill), you can use it, just coat it with vegetable oil first and pre-heat for a couple of minutes. Place the stuffed hot dogs on the grill, stuffing side down. Grill for 2 minutes, until the bacon on that side is cooked, turn the hot dogs a quarter turn and grill for a couple more minutes. Continue to grill for a few minutes each on all sides until the bacon is cooked. Cover the grill in between turnings to help with the cooking.

6 During the last minute of cooking, open up the hot dog buns and place them open-side down on the grill to lightly toast.

7 Remove the hot dogs and buns from the grill. Remove the toothpicks fro the hot dogs, place them in the buns and serve.

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Comments

Patricia

Wow! I have the most intense feeling of nostalgia right now. When I was a kid, one of my dad’s specialties was what he called “fancy dogs” – the same idea, only he would stuff the dogs with the mustard-ketchup mix, slices of american cheese, and thin strips of dill pickle before wrapping them with bacon. I remember how fun it was to pull out the charred toothpicks without making the bacon crumble all over the place.

How can you beat the combination of hot dogs, bacon, and cheese? Sounds like a real crowd pleaser for sure. When I was a kid, one of our very favorite dinners was something we called “weenies with cheese in the middle.” It was simply hot dogs, cut lenghthwise and fold open, then insert a long rectangle of cheese, place on a cookie sheet and bake until the hot dogs were browned and the cheese was melted (and running all over the place usually.) Everyone in the family loved this, except possibly my parents, but they never complained when we would beg for it. I think at the next Denny Family Campout I should make this recipe and tell them it’s a gourmet version of “weenies with cheese in the middle.”

For anyone concerned about the fat content, Ballpark makes a delicious non-fat beef frank that my family can’t tell apart from the high-fat version, and I prefer the taste because it tastes more like meat and less like fat. (Ballpark also makes a low-fat turkey frank, but to my taste, the beef is far better.) Go ahead and splurge! I agree with a previous poster, what doesn’t taste better wrapped in bacon?!

We made these yesterday and they were phenomenal. Everyone was a little worried before the first bite, but we all recognize the inherent goodness of bratwursts, cheese, and bacon. The kraut was very mild, and turned a great golden color on the grill (or due to mustard saturation…). Anyway, here’s a much less pretty photo of the results.

While I was putting these together, I decided that they were way too much work for bbq hot dogs. (I made a dozen to go along with hamburgers for my family of 7. We like meat.) When I saw them all piled on the serving platter, I decided that they were gorgeous and brought the humble hot dog to new heights. When I tasted them, I knew I’d be making them again. Thank you for sharing the recipe!

Every single word in that title is awesome. Grilled, Bacon-wrapped, Stuffed, Hot Dogs…and then you throw recipe in at the end, like the proverbial cherry on top. Yes! He’s gonna tell us how to make this complete triumph of foodstuff for ourselves! Thank you, kind sir. You and your father are geniuses.

I do something like this with brats.
I precook the brats by boiling for a few minutes to reduce the flare ups before grilling. Then I slice the brat longways about 3/4 way through, fill with thin slices of lightly grilled pineapple and cheddar cheese, wrap with bacon, and grill. yummmmmmy

What type of hotdogs do you buy. I am trying to find something that my kids will eat that’s not too expensive but still is healthy and has flavor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also, sausages and cold cuts anyone?

When I was a kid, not only did my mother make these at home, but there was a drive-in restaurant where this was a speciality. They were, and still are, called whistle pigs, and the were served at Page’s Whistle Pig at 6 Corners in Niagara Falls, NY.

I lived in LaSalle a few years ago, which is at the tip of Niagara Falls and The Whistle Pig had just reopended. Someone described to me what they were all about. Thats all I needed to hear. I went, I saw, I smelled, I heard, I conquered and I absolutely loved it!!! Thanks for bringing back good memories!!! :-D

I thought these looked good, and I was right! When I told my wife what I was making, her reply was “wait, grilled stuffed what?” She was really apprehensive, but quickly turned into a believer once she ate one. Great recipe.

Get right out of town! Bacon wrapped hotdogs? I’m going to be the BEST wife and Mommy on the block! Ok, maybe not best for their healthy, but popular, that’s for sure!!! These sound so yummy, my mouth is watering – minus the sauerkraut I think!